Social Solidarity Minister Marie-Louise Coleiro Preca is the frontrunner to become the next President of Malta, sources have told The Sunday Times of Malta.

Although the Prime Minister’s shortlist includes two other senior Cabinet members, he is known to favour a woman candidate. This makes Ms Coleiro Preca the clear favourite for the prestigious but mostly ceremonial post.

It is understood that Joseph Muscat held initial consultations about the post with Ms Coleiro Preca early last week.

Efforts to contact Ms Coleiro Preca yesterday proved futile.

The sources said the government will be officially nominating the ninth President in the coming days after discussions in Cabinet and further consultations take place between the Prime Minister and the Opposition leader.

The next President’s oath of office is expected to be held on April 4.

Considered to be one of the Labour government’s most popular ministers, Ms Coleiro Preca, 55, could become the youngest person to occupy Malta’s highest office and the second woman, after Agatha Barbara.

Hailing from Qormi, also the hometown of President George Abela, Ms Coleiro Preca spent all her adult life in politics.

At just 21, she was elected general secretary of the Labour Party in 1982, during the politically turbulent years, before leaving the post in 1991.

She has also held the post of president of the women’s section of the Labour Party before being elected to Parliament in 1998.

Ms Coleiro Preca, who is married with one daughter, has been returned to Parliament in every election since then.

In the 2013 election, Ms Coleiro Preca obtained 5,707 first-count votes, making her by far the most popular politician in her district.

In 2008, after the resignation of Labour leader Alfred Sant, Ms Coleiro Preca had also contested unsuccessfully the leadership of the party.

The nomination of one of Labour’s ministers to the presidency will create a vacancy within Dr Muscat’s Cabinet, fuelling speculation that a reshuffle is in the offing.